I used some other
arguments, which seemed perfectly to satisfy him, and we separated, he
having previously acquainted me that he lived at Tottenham. Not many
days elapsed before I found an opportunity of viewing his daughter, and
I found her exquisitely beautiful. I had indeed gained a prize; and I
resolved that no entreaties on his part, or on hers, should induce me to
abandon my claim. I took care not to be seen by her, being sensible that
any impression I might make would be prejudicial to me; and I
subsequently learnt from her father that he had not disclosed to her the
promise he had been rash enough to make to me. I had an interview with
him--the third and last that ever took place between us--on the morning
of the day on which he made an attempt upon the life of the King. I rode
over to Tottenham, and arrived there before daybreak. My coming was
expected, and he himself admitted me by a private door into his garden,
and thence into the house. I perceived that his mind was much disturbed,
and he told me he had passed the whole night in prayer. Without
acquainting me with his desperate design, I gathered from what he said,
that he meditated some fearful act, and that he considered his own life
in great jeopardy. If he fell, and he anticipated he should fall, he
committed his daughter to my care; and he gave me a written injunction,
wherein, as you will find, his blessing is bestowed upon her for
obedience to him, and his curse laid upon her in the event of a breach
of duty; commanding her, by all her hopes of happiness hereafter, to
fulfil the solemn promise he had made me--provided I should claim her
hand within a twelvemonth of his death.
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